humanities.philosophy.objectivism

Malrassic Park wrote:

> >Is that the name of the kid in the story? Let's please remember this is
> >a high school kid, mouthing off. You don't remember being a high school
> >kid, mouthing off? I sure do.

> Campbell is an Objectivist. Objectivists never mouth off, not at any
> age. Didn't you know that? Besides, it was an off-the-cuff statement
> to a reporter. Mouthing off usually consists of a lot of verbal
> insults and gibes designed to intimidate.

Is that a central point of Objectivism I missed? That high school kids
who read Ayn Rand are automagically blessed with tact and infallibility
and stuff?

Huh.


> He didn't use very precise words at all. And I don't base the school's
> reaction on the PC movement, but on Columbine and the paranoid
> tightening down of security afterwards in public schools throughout
> the country.

I agree.


> >What did the school do, in response to the complaints? Take them
> >seriously? Worse: what did everybody automatically know to do when they
> >felt "offended"? That's right: run and complain to some Authorities.
> >Irrationality is protected, alright -- as long as it's *organized* and
> >tax-exempt irrationality.
>
> I didn't glean from the news story that the kids felt *offended.* I
> got out of it that they felt threatened by his insulting, aggressive
> attitude.

I'm saying that the two words have somehow become synonymous, or at
least closely linked, in the minds of many.


> "Say something today that makes you a little nervous because someone
> might not like you for it." [....]

> But that is not what Campbell was doing, and it appeared threatening
> to the Xian students.

Because they're thin-skinned weenies, who've been taught that their
feelings should never get hurt.

> >You're talking now of his remarks after the hullaballoo?
>
> Yes, we were discussing his remark to a reporter about religion being
> protected in this country.

But you were also discussing the actual tirade in class that led to the
whole silly affair, yes?


> >Uh, high school kid?
>
> Remember, he was a self-proclaimed OBJECTIVIST high school kid.
> According to the news story, Campbell had said:
> 'Ayn Rand personifies her vision of man's existence in her magnum
> opus, Atlas Shrugged. Rand says that the pursuit of our own happiness
> should be our goal in life and that morality does not come from
> others.'

Yes?

And?


> And as for his statement in the speech about the productive use of
> reason: 'Things like faith, mysticism, and feeling restrict one from
> productive, rational thought, and if we are not thinking, we are not
> free.' But his demonstration was not a productive use of reason.
>
> So, yes, "uh, high school kid." Uh, I mean, Objectivist high school
> kid.


(A) high school kids tend to mouth off about whatever they're convinced
is Really Cool at the moment. That doesn't bear one way or another on
the actual content of the thing itself, or its *actual* coolness.
Tact? Not so much. You mentioned gently needling Mormons. Are you 17?
I'm guessing not. "Gently needling" comes along later -- passion and
loudness comes first.

(This fervor applies to favorite teams, or rock bands, as much as to
anything else.)

I think by referring to him as "Campbell" -- as if you're referencing an
official source of somesort, and picking apart specific quotes -- you're
treating a blow-off speech by a bright angry kid (raises hand) as if he
was some highfallutin' philosophical target ripe for, uh, targeting.

(B) high school kids tend to get very excited about something that
sounds good, and then gloss over the blank spots and simply quote the
authority without making the words their own first (raises hand again).